WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The International Monetary Fund on Monday approved a $30.6 million disbursement to Jamaica, confirming the Caribbean country was on track after the first performance review of its $944 million loan program. The program is meant to help Jamaica reduce its heavy debt burden, which the IMF estimated at 142 percent of GDP at the end of March. Jamaica has also grappled with a drop in international reserves and a sharp slide in the Jamaican dollar. Jamaica's 2010 loan agreement with the IMF lapsed after the government failed to meet performance targets, and some analysts have expressed skepticism about a new program.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Fresh from a big victory in raising $430 billion for the International Monetary Fund, Christine Lagarde's tougher test as head of the global lender will be finding a way to give emerging economies more influence. To do this, the former French finance minister will need to convince the Fund's dominant powers - the United States and Europe - to sign off on voting reforms agreed in 2010 and accept further changes by January 2014. When Lagarde passed around the hat among finance ministers last week to raise funds to contain the euro zone's debt crisis, China, India, Brazil and Russia said they would be part of the effort but chose not to announce each of their contributions until a June summit of the Group of 20 leading economies.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The head of the International Monetary Fund on Tuesday urged more coordinated efforts to strengthen global banking regulations to make the financial sector less prone to crisis. Christine Lagarde, managing director of the IMF, said the global economic recovery was still very fragile and the financial system in Europe under heavy strain. She cautioned policymakers not to let financial regulation slip off the policy agenda. "We need financial regulation that makes the financial sector safer and puts it back in the service of the real economy," Lagarde told a roundtable on the future of financial regulation.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The International Monetary Fund tiptoed toward greater openness on Monday, pledging to publish more reports on its lending to governments and to release details of internal discussions more quickly. To publish or not to publish has long been a burning debate within the Washington-based multilateral lender. The conflict reflects the IMF's dual functions: to advise each of its 188 member countries on their economies, and to act as a global economic watchdog. In its discussions with each government, the IMF must balance transparency and confidentiality, as it seeks to give insight into a country's economy without jeopardizing privileged information that can sometimes be politically damaging.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Housing busts and recessions are more severe and last for at least five years when they follow a big run-up in household debt, according to a study released on Tuesday by the International Monetary Fund. The findings suggest that economies of the United States, the UK and other European countries that saw consumer debt balloon along with house prices ahead of the onset of the financial crisis in 2007 may only just be starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Russia will consider contributing more than the $10 billion it has already promised to bolster the International Monetary Fund's crisis-fighting war chest, with the final figure to be coordinated with other BRICS countries, Finance Minister Anton Siluanov said on Saturday. "Ten billion dollars as (Russia's) minimum contribution has already been declared, the issue now is of changing it, increasing the sum, taking under consideration the IMF's need for additional resources," Siluanov told journalists on the sidelines of the International Monetary/World Bank spring meeting in Washington.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The International Monetary Fund on Monday approved a 1.48 billion euro ($1.81 billion) loan disbursement to Portugal under the country's 78-billion-euro international bailout and urged it to stick to strong economic policies and reforms so it can regain access to capital markets. "It will be important to maintain the commitment to strong policies and structural reforms to foster sustainable growth, especially through labor and product markets reform, to strengthen debt dynamics, and to regain market access," the IMF said in a statement.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Budget deficits in advanced economies are on track to shrink by 1 percentage point of gross domestic product this year and slightly faster in 2013, an appropriate pace in a slow-growth environment, the International Monetary Fund said on Tuesday. By 2015, government debt ratios are expected to stabilize for most countries, assuming that interest rates remain low and growth continues, the IMF said in its Fiscal Monitor report. But the balance is precarious, and the UK, Italy and France are among countries that are vulnerable to even small economic shocks that would worsen their debt profiles.